Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Alignment specs

I just had 2 new Blizzaks put on by Sears Auto Center (they were the only ones locally who I could find that stocked Blizzaks-- and the price was good) and also had an alignment done at the same time. The car seems to be tracking a bit differently, so I was wondering if they used the right alignment values when they worked on it. Does anyone know of the toe-specs for a 2000 SE?? I'd love to compare them, especially since the front was apparently way out, yet I had new tie-rod ends put on 2 months ago and the car was going down the road perfectly straight before.

Thanks in advance

my experience with alignsments is that if they set the car with toe out it will follow the road more and not give any positive feeling, its pretty neutral and that is how my mystique is at the moment.


not if it is set with some toe in, the steering is a bit heavier feeling but it will not track the road and the steering will feel more persice. I believe each side had a 32nd toe in for a total of 1/16 th of an inch toe in, but I don't remember exactly off hand


difference between the two as they were done about the same time was the mystique was done at a shop that sees most run of the mill cars, ie your everyday basic transportation while the contour was done at a place the requarly sees higher end cars like bmws, audi's and the like

Can you post the readings? All of the readings, not just the toe. Include front caster, camber, and toe as well as thrust angle and rear camber and toe.

Assuming the other angles are correct, you want the front toe as close to zero as possible while still being slightly toed out, and the rear toe just the opposite, as close to zero as possible while still being toed in.

I suspect the thrust angle is off, but lets see what you have. Thrust angle should be zero. There is no excuse for it to be even a little off on our cars except for a lazy technician.

Sorry Todd, didn't see them up in the stickies (ok, I didn't look too hard either)...

Those are the same specs that I have from the readout. It's interesting how one side was at .15 and the other was at .29, yet the car still felt like it was going straight quite well. They put both the fronts at -.10 degrees toe... i'm not sure about the backs. Thrust angle is at .03degrees (unchanged).

I would assume negative toe points out and positive toe is inward?? Or am I backwards here?

The tech was lazy. He probably didn't bother with the rear and moved right up to the front or he would have been able to get the thrust angle dead on. The thrust angle isn't all that bad and is probably not contributing much if any to the strange handling you're experiencing.

The two different readings on the front toe would have been because the steering wheel was slightly off center. That is it was off before and is now centered, or it was centered before and is slightly off now. Sometimes total toe means more than individual toe.

Please be aware that although you can't adjust caster and camber on our cars without adding the adjusters, those angles are still important. You really should try to evaluate the alignment settings by observing ALL of the angles, not just part of them. Caster and camber can effect handling too.

I believe you are correct on the negative and positive toe. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the way I rmemeber it.

It sounds like he hit the front toe where I like it, as close as possible to zero as bossible while still being slightly toed out.

Big Jim, confirmed. As viewed from birds-eye-view, positive toe is toe-in, or tires showing arrow sign. Negative toe is toe-out and tires showing duck feet stance.

To thread poster, the toes have little affect on straight ahead handling of vehicles. The camber, caster and tire parameters(PRAT) have far larger affect. If your handling issue is something other than straight tracking, you need to take all alignment parameters into account.

Well I don't think this is the whole story.

You can adjust caster and camber to a small degree on our cars by loosening the four subframe bolts and shifting the subframe. It will move in any forward/back/lateral direction by several milimeters, enough to correct most small cross camber and caster problems. I took care of an age old right drift that my car always had once I lowered it and adjusted the subframe. THe alignment shops are usually too lazy to try to shift the subframe so I actually did it myself and took it in again later for fine tuning.

True enough. Shifting the subframe sometimes can correct a drift. It won't correct a tire wear issue from excessive negative camber though.